Italian media and fans have been fiercely critical of English referee Anthony Taylor’s performance in EURO 2024, claiming Germany were denied a ‘clear’ penalty against Spain and ‘Jose Mourinho was right’ to insult him.
Taylor already has a very poor reputation in Italy because of some previous decisions, the most famous a Roma penalty appeal in the 2023 Europa League Final against Sevilla that was not given.
It was fairly similar to the incident seen in this evening’s EURO 2024 Round of 16 tie, when Marc Cucurella seemed to lean into the block on a Jamal Musiala strike to charge it down with his hand.
The tie was level then, but Spain went on to win it deep into extra time.
Italian media was outraged and drew comparisons with the Roma incident, noting repeatedly that “Mourinho was right” to hurl abuse at Taylor in the car park of the stadium after that Europa League Final.
Multiple refereeing pundits on Sky Sport Italia, RAI Sport and Tuttomercatoweb all confirm they would’ve given that as a penalty because Cucurella leaned in and dangled his arm to block the shot.
Prima o poi nel calcio dovranno introdurre un sistema tecnologico di qualche genere per permettere che errori agghiaccianti come quello dell'arbitro #Taylor non condannino ingiustamente una squadra.
Lo chiamerei Var. pic.twitter.com/yrcAomr9US
— Fabrizio Biasin (@FBiasin) July 5, 2024
Taylor blasted by Italian media
“The handball is so obvious that the VAR should be sent home as punishment, not to mention Taylor, who is incredibly error-prone,” said Sky Sport Italia journalist Maurizio Compagnoni.
“The only doubt can be if there was a Fullkrug offside or handball earlier in the move, otherwise it is inexplicable. The penalty Taylor didn’t give to Roma a year ago in the Europa League was already shocking, but this error was even worse.
“Taylor is an embarrassing referee. Evidently he has a concentration problem, which is inadmissible for a referee. If there was no offside first, then we are at the level of scandal seen in Bayern Munich-Fiorentina in 2010, when Miroslav Klose’s goal was ruled out for an impossible offside.
“This is the kind of error that will make it into the history of European and World football.”
Mourinho was right about Anthony Taylor.
He did it again. pic.twitter.com/1IpPY3hlau
— IM🇵🇹 (@Iconic_Mourinho) July 5, 2024
Former referee and Sky Sport Italia pundit Gianpaolo Calvarese agreed that this was an error from Taylor.
“The gesture from Cucurella is evident, with his movement he tries to intercept the ball with an arm outside of the silhouette. Just look at the image and how close the right arm is to his body compared to the left.”
Some on Twitter even joked that Taylor Swift would’ve done a better job refereeing than Anthony Taylor.
The referee was also criticised for some bizarre handing out of yellow cards seemingly at random.
Aveva ragione. Come al solito. #taylor #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/GHfZuJFjxC
— Flavio M. Tassotti (@FlavioMTassotti) July 5, 2024
English referee are generally poor! I wonder what England can do right….the worst of Italian mediocrity is the best England can offer!
English referees and players can’t live without cheating.
Agreed, clear penalty. He shot his own country in the foot however. Eng will get to final and Spain will destroy them
Come on don’t be fooled by camera angles, his hand was clearly tuck in when it hit his arm, even the commentators agreed it was not a pen
@Winn, why do you feel the need to bring (English) players into this, you seem to be a rather you small minded little person.